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COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE
LIBRARY
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Cornell University Library
ND 636.M62
Illustrated catalogue of Flemish and Dut
3 1924 016 777 405
DATE DUE
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GAVLORD
PRtNTEOlNU.S.*.
FLEMISH AND DUTCH
PAINTINGS
THE MAX MICHAELIS GIFT TO
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
''«*>
THE LETTER-WRITER
Gerard Ter Borch
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE
OF
FLEMISH AND DUTCH
PAINTINGS
WITH INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
BY
T. MARTIN WOOD
1913
LONDON
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES & SONS, LIMITED
GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W. .
INDEX TO PLATES
JANSENS, CORNELIS : Professor Aemilius Commis
KEYSER, WILLIAM DE : A Shepherd •
KNYFF, WOUTER : View of a Dutch Town
KONINGH, PHILIPS DE : A View in Holland ■
MAES, NICOLAS : Portrait of a Lady
MEER, BARENT VAN DER : Still Life
.METSU, GABRIEL: The Dessert •
NASON, PIETER : Portr-ait of a Lady
NEER, AERT VAN DER : Moonlight River Scene
NEER, AERT VAN DER : Dawn ....
NEER, AERT VAN DER: Sunset
NETSCHER, CASPAR : A Lady at a Fountain ■
OCHTERVELT, JACOB : The Pet Dog •
OSTADE, ADRIAEN VAN : The Blind Fiddler •
PUTTER, PIETER DE : Portrait of a Lady— aged 2
REMBRANDT (SCHOOL OF) : The Repose in Egypt
-RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN : The Hill of Bentheim
— RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN : Mountainous Landscape
SAENREDAM, PIETER : The Town Hall, Haarlem
SNYDERS, FRANS : A Concert of Birds ■
STEEN, JAN : The Dancing Dog ....
STEEN, JAN : The Continence of Scipio
— -rTENIERS, DAVID, the Younger: The Shepherd
TENIERS, DAVID, the Younger: The Prodigal's Return
TOL, DOMINIQUE VAN : The Oyster Seller
TOORENVLIET, JACOB: A Family GROUP •
VELDE, WILLEM VAN DE : The Salute •
The Interior
VERMEER, JOHANNES :
Kerk at Delft • ■ . •
VERSPRONCK, JOHANNES CORNELISZ :
VLIEGER, SIMON DE : Fishing Boats
WATERLO, ANTHONIE : Hunting Party
WEENIX, JAN : Hare and Pheasant •
VAN DER : The
OF the
Portrait
WERFF, ADRIAEN
Players
- W ITTE,
EMANUEL DE:
Delft
Youthful
Interior of the Nieuwe
WOUWERMAN, PHILIPS : The Cart in a Rut
WYCK, JAN : The Sick Woman
OUDE
Card
Kerk,
Ti face p.
25
13
58
54
26
27
59
29
30
64
65
28
3'
60.
32
45
33
34
61
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
63
42
43
44
45
46
47
55
66
53
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAINTERS
BLOEMART, ABRAHAM : Portrait of an Old Man
SNYDERS, FRANS : A Concert of Birds ....
VERSPRONCK, JOHANNES CORNELISZ : Portrait
— *HALS, FRANS : Portrait of a Woman ....
HALS, DIRCK : A Musical Party
JANSENS, CORNELIS : Professor Aemilius Commis
- GOYEN, JAN VAN : The Mouth of a River •
_-GOYEN, JAN VAN : A Breezy Day
SAENREDAM, PIETER : The Town Hall, Haarlem
DYCK, SIR ANTHONY VAN : John Oxenstierna, Count
of Sodremore
PUTTER, PIETER DE : Portrait of a Lady— aged 28
VLIEGER, SIMON DE : Fishing Boats •
NEER, AERT VAN DER : Moonlight River Scene
NEER, AERT VAN DER : Dawn ....
NEER, AERT VAN DER : Sunset . . . ■
ES, JACOB VAN : A DiSH OF PLUMS • • ■ .
CUYP, AELBERT: The Distant Town
CUYP, AELBERT : Portrait
EVERDINGEN, C. VAN : The Young Augustus with Wreath
of Laurels
. WITTE, EMANUEL DE :
Delft
Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk,
WATERLO, ANTHONIE : Hunting Party
BOTH, JAN : Romantic Landscape
-^OSTADE, ADRIAEN VAN : The Blind Fiddler
'--TENIERS, DAVID, the Younger: The Shepherd .
-=TENIERS, DAVID, the Younger : The Prodigal's Return
BOL, FERDINAND: Portrait of a Lady.
NASON, PIETER : Portrait of a Lady ....
FLINCK, GOVAERT: The Artist as "An Eastern Prince"
BORCH, GERARD TER : The Letter- Writer .
KONINGH, philips DE : A View in Holland
BEGA, CORNELIS PIETERZ : The Cottager's Family •
WOUWERMAN, philips : The Cart in a Rut
DUBBELS, HENDRICK : The Beach at Scheveningen •
BEERSTRATEN, JAN VAN : A View of Middelum, Holland-
Winter ■
1564-
1579-
1579-
1580-
1591-
1593-
1596-
1597-
1599-
160C-
1600-
1603-
1606-
1606-
1606-
1607-
1609-
1610-
1610-
161C-
1611-
1612-
1615-
1617-
1619-
1620-
1620-
1620-
658
657
662
666
656
664
666
665
641
-59
660
677
666
672
679
692
676
662
6S5
690
681
691
660
681
689
664
668
676
1623-1687
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PAINTERS
DU JARDIN, KAREL : The Start for Hawking
STEEN, JAN: The Dancing Dog
STEEN, JAN : The Continence of Scipio
AELST, WILLEM VAN : A Vase of Flowers •
BEYEREN, JAN ABRAHAMSZ VAN : Fish on a Table •
BEYEREN, JAN ABRAHAMSZ VAN : Fruit and Still Life
METSU, GABRIEL : The Dessert • . • • •
-RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN : The Hill of Bentheim
RUISDAEL, JACOB VAN : Mountainous Landscape
BACKHUYSEN, LUDOLF : Coast Scene • . . •
HEEM, CORNELIS DE : Fruit and Leaves
MAES, NICOLAS : Portrait of a Lady ....
VERMEER, JOHANNES : The Interior of the Oude Kerk
at Delft
VELDE, WILLEM VAN DE : The Salute
TOL, DOMINIQUE VAN : The Oyster Seller-
OCHTERVELT, JACOB : The Pet Dog . • • ■
HONDECOETER, MELCHIOR D' : A Cat Attacking Poultry
HOBBEMA, MEINDERT: The Water-Mill
NETSCHER, CASPAR : A Lady at a Fountain
HOUCKGEEST, GEERAERT VAN H. : Interior of a Church
Member of Guild in 1639
WYCK, JAN : The Sick Woman 1640-1702
WEENIX, JAN : Hare and Pheasant 1640-1719
TOORENVLIET, JACOB : A Family Group .... 1641-1719
GELDER, AERT DE : A Taxidermist 1645-1727
KEYSER, WILLIAM DE : A Shepherd 1647-1692
BREKELENKAM, QUIRYN : The Morning Gossip. Member of
Guild in 1648
DU MOOR, KARL : Portrait of a Lady 1656-1738
WERFF, ADRIAEN VAN DER : The Youthful Card Players 1659-1722
MEER, BARENT VAN DER : Still Life 1659-
CROOS, JACOBUS VAN : Landscape .... Paintings dated 1666
KNYFF, WOUTER : View of a Dutch Town • • • . Died 1679
DUTCH SCHOOL, I7TH Century : Portrait
DUTCH SCHOOL, 17TH Century: A Battle
REMBRANDT (SCHOOL OF) : The Repose in Egypt
PERIOD
1625-1678
1626-1679
1626-1683
1627-1674
1 630- 1 667
163O-1682
163I-
1631-1695
1632-1693
1632-1657
1 63 3- 1 707
1635-1676
1635-I7OO
1636-1695
1638-I709
1639-1684
A VASE OF FLOWERS
H'iliia})! van AeUt
INTRODUCTION
In 1 910, when Sir Hugh Lane went out to South Africa to
assist at the foundation of the Johannesburg Municipal Gallery
of Modern Art, it caused him regret to see that in Cape Town,
which had been the centre of the drama of the development
of the Union, the links with the past were fast disappearing,
few architectural features of Old Cape Town remaining to
carry the poetry of their old associations into the new world.
Encouraged by the attitude of leading men of the Dutch popu-
lation and by Lady Lionel Phillips, who has always taken an
active part in the encouragement of art in South Africa, Sir
Hugh conceived the idea of centring in Cape Town a collection
of the art in which Dutchman and Englishman, as artist and
patron respectively, first met each other in spirit.
Having conceived the value of such a gift, he went to
work in a characteristically practical way, adding to the Dutch
and Flemish paintings in his own possession, establishing a
nucleus group, in the hope that it would be acquired and
presented to South Africa by lovers of the country as the
foundation of a national collection.
Mr. Max Michaelis, with the most affectionate remem-
brances of South Africa, where he spent his earlier years,
B
lo FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
was seeking to do something for its people when this opportunity
occurred. It is to him that the Union of South Africa is
indebted for a gift unique in its romantic character.
There was a time when the Dutch and English contested
for the paintings of the great Dutch sea-painter Van der Velde,
and Van der Velde's genius was employed by the English to
represent their sea-fights with the Dutch. Thus even while there
was antagonism, as between the interests of the two maritime
nations at sea, there was a meetinof ofround in art — in that art of
Holland which from the first by its peculiar character excited
the interest of the English and claimed them in particular for
its patrons.
So significant is this taste of the English for the character
of Dutch art that it indicates a temperamental affinity between
the races, which at one point might lead to antagonism where
interests clashed, and at another form the basis of an invulnerable
alliance where their interests could be perceived to lie in the
same direction.
Only a little less than its own art does that art which a
nation singles out for its especial patronage reflect it. We
have, of course, in pictures of any country and period an
absolute mirror of the quality of the mind of their producers.
The extraordinary sensitiveness to the atmosphere of coast
scenery, as apparent in Dutch art, expressed a love of the sea
that is partly of the sailor as well as of the artist ; it is some-
thing which in itself was sufficient to find response from
England — and if we would understand Dutch art, we must
remember that no artist is an artist and nothing else ; his power
increases to the extent to which he is more, instead of less,
human than his fellows, more than any of them susceptible to
the influences which stir their senses and imaginations. Upon
FISH OX A TABLE
INTRODUCTION ii
this plane, indeed, the boundaries of nationaUty, which must
always be recognized in art, can be re-defined, showing a rela-
tionship between the Dutch and English which was later, as
events turned out, to express itself in another way than in art,
in the concrete element of actual facts. And here, before going
further, we may note again a relationship between the two
countries, which is no less evidently expressed in Dutch painting
— namely, the dislike of vagueness, the love of the definite, the
discovery of inspiration in just those things which are farthest
from dreams, nay the turning of actualities themselves into
the splendour of dreams by civic and military ritual, the defer-
ence in art to the outer splendour of world-power, which is
reflected in Dutch art with all its glitter like a procession
passing, or like an illuminated inventory of costly things.
But we shall quite mistake this art if we think it is only
the outward spectacle of life that absorbs it. In putting that
interpretation upon it we are merely ascribing to it the province
of photography. We must credit it with fuller achievement
than that. If we really wish to understand it, we must view it
as passionately expressing its interest in that aspect of the
world which is most relevant to actualities, in that beauty which
things assume for the imagination when they are viewed in the
light of poignant human associations. It is an art which is in
spirit essentially friendly, with that friendliness which familiar
things assume towards us when we see ourselves threatened by
some abnormal visitation.
Dutch paintings were composed entirely with a view to
influencing the mood of those who lived with them daily.
In this spirit they differ from modern painting, which for the
most part seems to concentrate on making an effect in an
exhibition. It is significant of the temper of both the Flemish
B 2
12 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
and the Dutch that they preferred the representation of a
civilized and familiar aspect of life to the " elementary " and
" exceptional." To any one of their great painters the words
might have applied which their great descendant, Maeterlinck,
has used to describe the inspiration of the characteristic artist
of modern times: "He will place on his canvas a house lost
in the heart of the country, an open door at the end of a
passage, a face or hands at rest, and by these simple images
will he add to our consciousness of life." *
The direction taken by the art of the Netherlands was
determined by the traits it had in common with the Flemish
School. But Flemish art is feminine by the side of that of
Holland, in its more devotional genius, its greater instinctive-
ness, and its sensitiveness. The image of sister and brother,
illustrating the relationship of the two schools in aspect, springs
at once into the mind. In the place of tenderness Dutch art
reveals a miraculous precision of touch, and a clearness of vision
which is also the very language of a full response to life, if less
expressive of a divination that there is beauty hidden from our
sight. Dutch art is more than Protestant, it is " Positivist " ;
practically it rejects everything to which the five senses can-
not respond. In an age like our own, when even science has
advanced to the acceptance of other senses, this art assumes
a local character which is not characteristic of the art in which
the Flemish spirit finds its full expression. But even in moving
in the world which seems at first bounded by the evidence of
five senses only, Dutch art is to be distinguished from some of
the results which art has put forward in modern times, in
painting which founds itself on the theory that it is the world
of vision alone in which a painter moves. As a matter of
* " The Treasure of the Humble."
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FRUIT AND STILL LIFE
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INTRODUCTION 13
fact the art of painting is not able to rest itself permanently
on a theory of this kind, for the painter, whether he is con-
scious of it or not, paints out of a store of experience which
is replenished within him through the channels of all his
senses acting simultaneously. The salt-wet wind which is stir-
ring the surface of the water in a Dubbels' or a De Vlieger's
seapiece, this in actual fact is something which at the moment
of perception affected the painter's mood and vision, and effected
thus an interpretation on canvas which can only appeal to us
through vision — through the passage to imagination provided
by our eye, as spectators of the picture. Paintings, however
realistic, affect us quite differently from photographs, for the
eye of a painter is more than a lens, it is a window through
which he looks out. And whereas in a camera there is nothing
but darkness and emptiness at the back of the lens, at the back
of the eye there is an individual regarding the world from a
point-of-view, and in a state-of-soul, which may be resembled in
the experience of another, but never repeated. All this would
seem so perfectly obvious as not to admit of repetition, but in
the case of Dutch painting, with its intense realism, it does
become necessary to make clear, to the point of emphasis, that
its realism is not to be understood by comparison with the
purely visual realism of a photograph. It expresses influences
upon the painter from a thousand directions, in the shape of
sounds and memories waiting upon his spirit in the moment
of creation.
It is the very intimate note in Dutch art — the feeling that
we are never really out of the sound of the human voice — that
gives it its hold upon the imagination. The idea of these artists
was that of setting apart within the frame a little world to
which imagination might have recourse at any moment. A
14 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
photograph embraces everything, and so cannot sway imagina-
tion. Realism in art, rejecting ten thousand things for the one
thing that it prefers for representation, gives a direction to the
thoughts of the spectator, which for the moment determines
the character of his sense of reahty. And then, to use the
recent words of a great modern artist in the medium of the
novel, there is "the gain of charm, interest, mystery, dignity,
distinction, ga:in of importance, in fine, on the part of the repre-
sented thing (over the thing of accident, of mere actuality, still
unappropriated)." *
The whole elaborate structure of modern "realism," as we
have it in great novel-writing and in every other form of later-
day art, rests upon the broad foundation of the conscience for
truth to nature established in the sevententh century by the
school of the painters of Holland. The refinement of impres-
sionism, as refinement of the truth, does but the more infinitely
express this conscience. The achievement of Dutch art com-
pared with that of the art of Italy which preceded it was
that it contrasted the beauty of actualities with invented or
imagined beauty. And, as we have suggested, the Dutch found
their way so immediately to the special grace of things of every-
day aspect by the route of their passionate interest in every-
thing that reflected human nature. It has been claimed for
them that they were the first of the "moderns" in all this —
and that we have in Rembrandt's art with its delicate psycho-
logy the very brand of that curiosity after conditions of mind
which has in modern art and science taken such a conscious
shape. The modern portrait-painter, and writers on portraiture,
understand each other in the light of a whole vocabulary of
definitions which could be referred back to the interpre-
* " A Small Boy and Others." By Henry James.
Plate J
PORTRAIT
Aelbert Cuyp
2;
u
CO
a:
u
<
INTRODUCTION 15
tation Rembrandt quite instinctively put upon the rules of
the art.
In one feature, more than another, perhaps, Dutch art
isolates itself in character, except from later English art — and
that is in the topographical sentiment by which it was evidently
guided in landscape. Its attachment, here again, is to everything
connected with human incident, to the farm, to the field, to the
house, to the site of markets, and to the sea-port, about which
the Dutch are quite as enthusiastic as about the sea. Every-
where they seem quite unconscious of the nature which Rousseau
later was in search of, virgin of contact with the human element.
Their most emotional painters, such as Ruysdael, come no nearer
to untrodden country than long-neglected woods, whose very
heart to him, as to all his fellow-countrymen, would be in the
dismantled castle, from which hunting parties had sallied a
century before. Ruskin, who had received his education — so
far as his life's work was concerned — in Italy, did not conceal
his enmity to many traits of the Dutch school, but upon one
ground, his own pen might have received its inspiration from
their pictures, and in a particular passage it describes the
state of mind in which the message of this landscape painting
originated * : —
"In the children of noble races, trained by surrounding
art, and at the same time, in the practice of great deeds, there
is an intense delight in the landscape of their country as
memorial ; a sense not taught to them, nor teachable to any
others ; but, in them, innate ; and the seal and reward of per-
sistence in great national life."
" The Dutch School," says a French critic, who well under-
stood its significance, " is the last of the great schools, perhaps
* " Lectures on Art." ,,
i6 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
the most original, certainly the most local. It was born on the
morrow of an armistice . . . when a breath of more propitious
temperature had passed over men's minds." *
All of the art of which we have written here flourished in
its most expressive form in the seventeenth century. It was in
its fullness of bloom at the very hour of the inception of Cape
Town, and when the prestige of the Dutch East India Company's
fleet was at its height.
T. M. W.
* Eugene Fromentin.
PORTRAIT
/7 Cent. Dutch Sclwol
S/y A. I 'an Dyck
lOHN OXENSTIERNA, COUNT OF SODREMORE
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE
or
FLEMISH AND DUTCH
PAINTINGS -
AELST, WiLLEM VAN
I626-I683
WiLLEM VAN Aelst excelled in still-life painting. He was the
nephew and pupil of an artist, Aert van Aelst, who had achieved
fame in the same subjects. Van Aelst's father was a notary of
Delft. Upon reaching manhood the painter travelled in France
and in Italy. It was from his long residence in the latter country
that he came to affect an Italian style in signing his name. He
enjoyed great favour with the Grand Duke of Tuscany. When he
returned to Holland in 1656, he went to reside in his native town of
Delft, but later moved to Amsterdam. He married Helena Niewen-
huys in 1679, the painter Eglon van der Neer being witness at the
wedding. He died in Amsterdam in 1683. Van Aelst differed in
one respect from many of his contemporaries in that he enjoyed
much recognition during his life. He possessed the ability to
bring his pictures to an exquisite state of finish without losing
spontaneity of touch.
1 A VASE OF FLOWERS
A painting of flowers in a silver vase of elaborate design in the
style of Lutma ; a watch lying upon its face with the crystal
back open for the better view of the goldsmith's work ; attached
to it a blue ribbon introducing lively incident of colour in con-
1 8 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
trast with the flowers. Butterflies and a dragon-fly alight upon
the flowers. Signed and dated. (See Plate i.)
Canvas. ^2^ in. x 8 in.
In arrangement of detail the picture is very happy, the position
of every leaf being studied with care. Everything assists the
intricate pattern without destroying the impression of the wilful-
ness of nature. The petals of the flowers are defined with a
touch which is quite expressive of their fragility. The closeness
of the observation where a flower of one colour affects by reflec-
tion the colour of another, is worthy of note. The piece is
characteristic of flower-painting in the golden period of that kind
of subject. The painter ranks as one of the greatest of the still-
life painters. That he regarded this painting as among his
masterpieces is evident from the fact that he was at pains to
retouch it after an interval of years, signing it again and re-
dating it.
BACKHUYSEN, Ludolf
1631-
LUDOLF BACKHUYSEN (Bakhuisen), who was born into a family
of position in 163 1, was intended for a commercial career, but
neglected his work in an Amsterdam counting-house for the society
of artists. Eventually he put himself under Van Everdingen as a
pupil, and studied also with; Hendrick Dubbels, both represented in
this collection. The port of Amsterdam gratified his great love
for scenes of shipping, and he commenced his career with pen-
drawings of the different vessels in the port. He then turned to
painting the same class of subjects, and used to brave great danger
by hiring fishermen to take him out to sea in storms. Indeed he
became the painter of storms in opposition to Willem van de Velde,
the painter of the sea in calm. He painted the embarkation of
Jan de Witt on the Dutch fleet, a view of the building yard of
the East India Company, a picture of the Dutch squadron and
many other pieces which preserve the image of the old Port of
THE ARTIST
EASTERN PRINCE;
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 19
Amsterdam, and the fleet with which the commercial glory of
Holland was promoted.
2 COAST SCENE
A large rock reflected in the sea, beyond which a ship is
anchored, the hilly coast and a coast-town in view ; in the near
foreground two figures stand out sharply, while a third is push-
ing a barrel in the water. (See Plate u.)
Signed with initials and dated 1663.
Panel. 21 in. y. 18 in.
BEERSTRATEN, Jan Abrahamsz van
1622-1687
BEERSTRATEN was bom in 1622 at Amsterdam, and christened in
the old parish church. All his life he worked in Amsterdam, and it
is supposed that the name Beerstraten was assumed by his father, a
cooper by trade, after the Beeren-straat, in which he lived. In 1642
the artist married Magdalena van Bronckhorst, by whom he had
five children. He died in his native city in 1687. Some of his
finest work remains in Amsterdam, in The Gallery, Town Hall, and
Six Collection.
3 A VIEW OF MIDDELUM, HOLLAND-
WINTER
Church, houses, and surrounding country covered in snow ;
many figures, in brightly-coloured dress, skating on the canal.
(See Plate 2.)
Signed Middelum : J. A. Beerstraten, fecit.
Canvas. 36 in. x 49 in.
BEGA, CORNELIS PlETERZ
I620-I664
CORNELIS Bega was born at Haarlem in 1620. He was the son
of a sculptor, Peter Begijn, or Beggijn (other forms of the name
20 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
Bega). The pupil of Adrian van Ostade, the celebrated illustrator
of scenes of peasant life, also represented in this collection, he takes
a high rank among the artists of interior genre. His themes are of
the same kind as those of his master, and, like his master's, they
betray a sense of humour and ability to respond to the incidents of
humble life. He entered the guild of St. Luke as a member in
1654, and died in Haarlem in 1664 — a victim of the plague, caught
whilst in attendance upon the lady to whom he was engaged.
4 THE COTTAGER'S FAMILY
The interior of a cottage in which a mother is seated, babe at
breast, while the father leans over, pipe in hand, trying to
attract the attention of the baby. In the background a man,
drinking-jug in hand, is conversing with a girl. The general
scheme of colour of the picture is brown ; a noticeable feature,
characteristic of the masters of the Dutch School, is the precision,
and the happy appreciation of the beauty of loose folds in cloth-
ing. The delicacy of the painting in the faces also illustrates
the supremacy of Dutch art in work on this scale. (,See Plate ifi.)
Canvas. 16 in. X 14 in.
From the Scarisbrick and Massey-Mainwaring Collections
BEYEREN, Abraham van
1627-1674
Van BeyeREN, or Beijeren, chiefly confined himself to pictures of
still life. He was a member of the guild at The Hague in 1640, at
Delft in 1657, and his name occurs again as member of The Hague
Guild in 1663, and of that of Alkmaar in 1674. It is supposed
that he died at the latter place in that year. He was particularly
fond of painting fish, but he was also one of the most successful of
the painters of flowers and fruit, and of gold and silver vessels.
5 FISH ON A TABLE
A basket full of fish, with fish on a table ; through an opening
A TAXIDERMIS'l'
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 21
the sea, with lowering clouds, is in view, and part of the beach
where a group of fishermen foregather round a landed boat.
(See PlaU 3.)
Signed with monogram A. v. B.
Canvas. 49 in. x 42 in.
6 FRUIT AND STILL LIFE
Fruit overflowing from silver dishes. In the centre a gold-
mounted nautilus cup and a covered glass goblet of yellow wine ;
a crystal watch lying open, with ribbon attached, as in the Van
Aelst picture ; grapes in profusion among other objects, upon a
crumpled white cloth spread over a green cloth, gold fringed.
A purple curtain is looped above. Signed with monogram.
(Stt Plate 4.)
Canvas. 49^ in. X 42^ in.
The genius of Holland in the representation of shining gold and
silver, the strange surface of mother-of-pearl, and the evanescent
bloom of fruit might well seem all poured into this one picture.
It shows an enthusiasm for fine specimens of manufacture equal
among the Dutch to their enthusiasm for nature. Their art
was immensely civilized in spirit int regarding such things as
the last effort of nature, put forth through human talent. It
betrays no sign of the feeling that an antagonism exists between
the aims of man and the intentions of nature which is so evident
a note of later art.
BfcQEMART, Abraham
1564-1^658
^- ABRAHAM BloEMART, painter and engraver, was born about 1564.
He was the master of more than one of the eminent Dutch painters
22 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
of the seventeenth century. His pupils included Jan Both and
Weenix. His death occurred in 1658.
7 PORTRAIT OF AN OLD MAN
A small painting of the head and shoulders of an old man with
white beard. {See piau 5.)
Panel. 6 in. x 6 in.
BOL, Ferdinand
161 1-1681
Ferdinand Bol was a native of Dordrecht. He was born in
1611. As a child he was brought to Amsterdam by his parents,
and it is with that town that he is identified. He became the pupil
of Rembrandt, was made a citizen, and in 1653 married Elizabeth
Dell. He died in Amsterdam in 168 1. In his own time his works
were on at least one public occasion preferred by his fellow citizens
to those of Rembrandt. He adopted his master's methods so fully
that at a first study his works seem to approach those of Rem-
brandt ; the intimacy and the mastery of the style of Rembrandt
are, however, missing. While in actual contact with Rembrandt
he ascended to achievements which he was afterwards unable to
maintain.
8 PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Half-length, seated portrait of a lady, in black embroidered
dress, with a ruff, lawn cap and cuffs. She wears a ring on the
third finger of either hand, and holds a white embroidered hand-
kerchief in her lap. (See Plate 49.)
Canvas. 33 in. x 2"] in.
BORCH, Gerard ter
1 61 7-1 68 1
Gerard ter Borch (Terburg) was born in 1617 at Zwolle. He
was the pupil of his father, a painter who had been influenced by
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN
Frans Hals
INTERIOR OF A CHURCH
G. van Ilouchgeesi
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 23
residence in Italy, and he studied also at Haarlem from 1632 to
1635. He then went to England — this was the period of Van
Dyck's ascendancy there — and later to Italy, returning in 1641
to Amsterdam. Here he painted small portraits. He was at
Miinster at the time of the ratification of the treaty of peace with
Philip IV., 1646 to 1648, working at the picture of the event, which
is in the National Gallery, and he was afterwards received at the
Court of Spain. He visited France before returning to Holland.
From 1650 to 1654 Ter Borch lived in his native town, ZwoUe;
eventually he settled at Deventer, where he married his cousin and
became a member of the town council, and afterwards a Burgo-
master. A portrait of himself painted in 1660 is in the Hague
Museum. Ter Borch died at Deventer in 1681 ; his body was con-
veyed to his birthplace and laid with ceremony in his father's
vault in the Church of St. Michael. He is pre-eminent among the
painters of interior genre. His painting expressed a temperament
of refinement, in its choice of the aspects of life represented, and in
its intimate touch.
9 THE LETTER-WRITER
A lady seated at a table, pen in hand, wearing a dark red velvet
jacket trimmed with swansdown over a white satin skirt. Her
carefully dressed hair, showing the forehead and adorned with a
little plume, subscribes to fashion, and her expression seems
arrested at the moment when pursuit of thought gives place to
the recognition of someone's presence. The unemployed hand
rests in her lap ; the appurtenances for writing are before her on
the table, which is covered in green. A framed picture hangs
on the wall, against which a map is also suspended. (See Frontispiece.)
Canvas. 2i\ in. x 17 in.
BOTH, Jan
1610-1662
Jan Both, a native of Utrecht, was born in 1610, and with
his elder brother Andries studied under his father, a painter on
glass ; later they were both pupils of Abraham Bloemaert. At the
24 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
termination of this apprenticeship they travelled together in France
and Italy, and at Rome they were greatly influenced by the art of
Claude Lorrain. The extraordinary sympathy that existed between
the brothers enabled them to work extensively on the same can-
vases, leaving the pictures with that unitj^ of spirit which as a
rule only pertains to work from a single hand. In this partner-
ship they rose to fame, Jan composing the landscape whilst Andries
solved the difficulties of figure composition. They occasionally
produced works which represented them individually. The partner-
ship terminated only with the death of Andries, under the saddest
circumstances. They were returning from an entertainment at
Venice one evening in 1644 when Andries fell into one of the
canals, and was drowned. Jan immediately left Italy. Ineffectually
he sought to co-operate successfully with another figure artist.
He died about 1662.
10 ROMANTIC LANDSCAPE
A small procession of muleteers following a pathway in a
romantic valley. A sharp cliff, with overgrowth, on the right of
the valley ; slender trees in the foreground.
This picture is one that represents Dutch art at the time when
foreign influences, chiefly Italian, were at work, predicting the
decline of the Dutch School (see note on Du Jardin). (See Plate 47.)
Canvas. 24 in. x 31 in.
BREKELENKAM, Quiryn
Member of Guild, 1648
BREKELENKAM was born near Leyden, though it is not known in
what year. Gerard Dou was his teacher ; he was also affected by
Rembrandt's influence. Brekelenkam was received into the Guild
of St. Luke at Leyden in 1648. His signed works date from 1653
to 1669. He lived at Leyden during the whole of his life, and was
twice married.
H THE MORNING GOSSIP
The interior of a dairy, with two women seated gossiping,
while a child stands by ; one of the women is peeling turnips,
PROFESSOR AEMILIUS COMMIS
Cornells Jansens
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 25
while the other, apparently her maid, has the results of market-
ing slung in a pail from her arm ; one of her hands is outstretched
in gesture, the other holds a flower. The expression of her
companion listening to her story is a good piece of character
study. Bright colour is introduced into the picture by the
means of the red skirt of the maid, and a blue jacket hanging
from a wooden screen. (See Plate so.)
Signed, and dated 1663
Panel. 20 m. by 15^ in.
CROOS, Jacobus van ' '
Paintings dated 1666
Jacobus van Crocs was a Dutch landscape painter who flourished
in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The dates of his
birth and death are not established. There is a view of the Hague,
painted in 1666 by this artist, in the Town Hall of the Hague.
12 LANDSCAPE
A country house near a river, flat country beyond, with a
church-tower in the distance. In the foreground two figures
on the near river-bank. The picture awakens curiosity from
its apparent truth to the character of some particular place.
It is not improbable that the place represented is still standing.
(See Plate J,.!.)
Panel, id in. x 12 in.
CUYP, Aelbert
1606-1672
Aelbert Cuyp, who was born at Dort in 1606, was the son of
Jacob Gerritz Cuyp. He studied with his father, from whom he
inherited sufficient property to place him beyond the difficulties
that embarrassed so many of his contemporaries. He became a
member of the Common Council and a burgher of Dordrecht. The
C
26 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
date of his death has not been traced, but there is evidence to show
that it was not previous to 1672.
13 THE DISTANT TOWN
A stretch of flat country with the outlines of a church, houses
and windmills extended across the plain in the haze of the
middle distance. In the foreground three men are in conversa-
tion : they are attended by a dog ; beyond them are two figures.
The right side of the picture is filled with the leafage of a tall
tree The foreground is thrown into strong shadow from trees
on the left, a common device with the Dutch landscapists for
securing contrast of effect, which Cuyp probably learnt from
van Goyen. The elements which go to the composition of this
picture are of the simplest, but it is characteristic of the highest
Dutch achievement in its subtle interpretation of atmosphere
and distance. (See Plate 51.)
Signed
Panel, ig in. x 27^ m.
14 PORTRAIT
Portrait of a man in dark green velvet suit, with white shirt and
gold embroidered vest. He wears a velvet cap, and a chain
over his shoulders which is gathered in his left hand. {See Plate 7.)
Panel. 27 in. x 22 in.
DU JARDIN, Karel
1625-1678
Du Jardin was born in Amsterdam in 1625. He became a pupil
of Nicholas Berghem, and commenced travelling in Italy while
still a youth. He early attracted attention by his distinguished
talents. For many years he resided at Rome, where his art met
with great appreciation. In later years he made a second visit to
Italy and died at Venice in 1678. His art partakes of some of the
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Nicoliis Maes
STILL LIFE
Bareiit Z'aii der Mcer
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 27
brighter quality of colour that distinguishes Italian painting, and
this is united to the neatness of Dutch craftsmanship.
15 THE START FOR HAWKING (or
Rendezvous de Chasse)
A party of horsemen carrying falcons in the grounds of a
chateau. Incidents of the scene are a boy with a bugle coup-
ling greyhounds ; other dogs are distributed in the composition,
and a turkeycock with spread tail. In the foreground a servant,
holding cloaks and a sword, stands with back to the spectator,
beside a white horse saddled for a lady who is seen descending
steps to the right with a cavalier. The grounds are orna-
mented with statuary and surrounded with trees. f,See Plate S6.)
Signed, and dated 1664.
Canvas. 21^ in. x 25 in.
Exhibited in the British Gallery, 18 19
From the Philip Henry Hope Collection.
Described in Smith's " Catalogue Raisonn^," Vol. 5, No. 107
" It is impossible," says Smith, " to commend too highly this
exquisite work of art." But, as a matter of fact, the Italian
influence, reflected in Du Jardin's work, and so much admired
in 1829, when the "Catalogue Raisonne " was first issued, fore-
told the decline of the Dutch School, the genius of which was
rooted in native temperament. (See note on Jan Both.)
DU MOOR, Karl ' - .
1656-1738
Karl du Moor, the elder, was born at Leyden, 1656. His
parents intended him for one of the learned professions, but
developing a love of art he persuaded his father to place him under
Gerard Dou. He was afterwards the pupil of Frans van Mieris.
He became celebrated through the execution of a sensational picture
C 2
28 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
of Brutus condemning his two sons to death, for the Town Hall
of Leyden. His name reaching Italy, the Grand Duke of Tuscany
desired the artist's portrait painted by himself to be placed among
the illustrious artists in the Uffizi Gallery. Du Moor sent the
portrait to Florence in 1702, and was honoured in return with a
gold medal and chain. Later in his career the Emperor of Austria
commissioned him to paint portraits, including one of the Duke of
Marlborough, and conferred on him the order of knighthood. One
of his best works is in the hall of the magistrates at the Hague,
representing the Burgomasters and Eschevins in the year 1719.
Du Moor died at Warmond in 1738.
16 PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Small portrait of lady, in a dark dress embroidered with blue,
wearing a pearl necklace. {See Plate 22.)
Panel. 6 in. x 3 zVz. ■ . ■
DUBBELS, Hendrick
1620-1676 • .
Of the story of Dubbels' life practically nothing is known, though he
is admitted to rank with the foremost Dutch marine painters.
L. Backhuysen, to whom his sea-pieces have often been attributed,
was his pupil. There is a small work attributed to Backhuysen in
the collection. The names are known of a Jan and a Dirk Dubbels,
but the former, at least, is now generally considered as identical
with Hendrick, instead of as his son. The vacillation of many of
the Dutch painters in determining upon a style in which to sign
their work is a continual cause of confusion to the historians of
their art.
17 THE BEACH AT SCHEVENINGEN
A storm gathering on the coast, fishermen landing a masted
fishing-boat near a wooden breakwater ; a ship in the offing
with furled sails. On the sands a horseman and other figures.
(See Plate S.)
Canvas. 18 J hi. x 25 m.
There is an exquisite effect in this picture. The sail of the ship
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Pieter Nason
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 29
carries a last reflection of sunlight into the cloud which over-
shadows the sea. The transparency of paint in these Dutch
sea pieces showed the way to such exquisite qualities as
Whistler was to reach long after in such a painting as his
Valparaiso. The sensitive modern artist could refine upon the
colour of the earlier school, but in the representation of the
atmosphere of the sea the Dutch painters of the seventeenth
century remain unrivalled ; and this, though artists like Dubbels
met the demands of fashion by the production of effects made
to a recipe.
DUTCH SCHOOL, 17TH Century ' ■
18 PORTRAIT
Three-quarter length portrait of a youth with long dark hair.
He is dressed in a black silk suit with lace collar and slashed
sleeves showing pink lining. He wears a gold embroidered
sword-belt, and holds a cane in his left hand. Dated 1665.
(See Plate 9.)
Canvas. 40 in. x 30 in.
19 A BATTLE
Cavaliers charging in war ; two are shown in close combat,
the nearest is mounted on a galloping wh^e horse, which
forms the central feature of the composition. In the middle
distance is a leafy tree assisting the decorative character of the
picture. The line of advance of mounted soldiers in combat
extends across the whole canvas. In the foreground, on rough
ground, lies a wounded soldier, his face downwards with head
towards the spectator, i^see Plate 57.)
Canvas. 42 in. x 66 in.
30 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
DYCK, Sir Anthony van
1599-1641
Van Dyck was born at Antwerp, on the 22nd March, 1599. He
was apprenticed to painting when he was ten. In 161 5 he entered
the Academy of Rubens, Rubens was delighted with his great
intelligence. Van Dyck acted as Rubens' assistant until 1620. In
1618 he was admitted into the guild of St. Luke at Antwerp. In
1620 he visited England and worked for James I. Acting upon
the advice of Rubens, he set out for Italy in 1624. He was now
regarded as a rival to Rubens himself At the invitation of the
Prince of Orange he visited the Hague in 1630, and it is also
thought that he went to London, and immediately returned, not
meeting there with the encouragement from the English Monarch
he had looked for. Charles I.'s accession, however, was propitious
for him. On seeing one of his portraits the King, whose noble
character he was afterwards to express so well, invited him to
England. So many commissions were offered him from the nobility
of England and France, that at last he would consent to paint only
those whose appearance attracted him. He married one of the
most beautiful women of the Court. The painter always went
magnificently dressed, with a numerous and gallant equipage. In
appearance he was of low stature, but well proportioned, very
handsome, modest and extremely obliging. He died in London,
and was buried in 1641 in old St Paul's.
20 JOHN OXENSTIERNA,
Count of Sodremore, Baron of Kymeck, son of Axel Oxen-
stierna ; plenipotentiary Minister at the Peace of Munster.
A nobleman with his arm resting on a pillar, at the base of
which is sculptured a coat-of-arms. The black of his suit and
cloak is of beautiful intensity, emphasized by the splendour of
gold ornamentation ; rosettes of a darker gold ornament his
shoes, the hose being of a faded crimson, particularly pleasant
in colour. The background shows a heavy green curtain in
folds. [See Plate 10.)
Canvas. 82 in. X 50 in.
THE PET DOG
Jacob Ochtej-veit
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 31
Litrie is known of the history of this painting before it appeared
in a London sale room in recent years, and its authenticity as
a Van Dyck has been doubted. The question has been asked
as to where the painter could have met the Swedish Count.
This difficulty is disposed of by recent information from the
Swedish Minister in England, giving details of the Count's career
which correspond with Dr. Bode's opinion that the picture was
painted about 1633 by Van Dyck with the assistance of his
pupils in the accessories : —
In 1632, when the Count was but twenty-one, he was made
Colonel of the Guard, after having travelled and taken his
degree of doctor in England at Oxford University. As early
as 1634 he was Envoy first in England and then in Holland.
It was noted of him that his demeanour was haughty and that
he appeared with great pomp at ceremonies. The coat-of-
arms at the base of the column in the picture is that of the
Oxenstiernas, one of the oldest and most eminent families in
Sweden.
ES, Jacob van
1606-1666 , :
Jacob van Es (or Essen) was a Flemish painter. He was born
at Antwerp in 1606, and must rank with the important still-life
painters of the period. He painted two remarkable pictures of the
same subject, a Fish Market ; these are in the Vienna Gallery ;
the figures in both instances were put in by Jordaens, the friend
and assistant of Rubens. Es died at Antwerp in 1666.
21 A DISH OF PLUMS
On a table a Delft dish with some green and purple plums ;
beside it is a glass vase, containing two carnations. (See Plate S3.)
Panel. 12 in. x 16 in. , ,
32 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
EVERDINGEN, C. van
1606-1679
C^SAR VAN EVERDINGEN was born at Alkmaar in 1606. He
became the pupil of a glass painter, who executed windows in the
new Church at Amsterdam, and was entered a member of the
Guild of his native place in 1632, and a member of the Guild at
Haarlem in 165 1. He attained eminence through a picture of the
portraits of the Company of Archers. In addition to being a painter
Van Everdingen had some fame as an architect. His death occurred
in 1679. In the Hague gallery is a picture by this artist repre-
senting Diogenes in the market-place of Haarlem seeking an
honest man. The painting contains portraits of the Steyn family
of Haarlem. Two younger brothers of Everdingen were artists :
Allart van Everdingen, a romantic landscape painter, etcher and
engraver, and Jan van Everdingen, an advocate who painted for
amusement.
■ 22 THE YOUNG AUGUSTUS WITH
WREATH OF LAURELS
A white marble bust crowned with laurels and cloaked with
red drapery, a horn with ribbon attached placed by its side.
{See Plate 11.)
Canvas. 30 in. x 20 in.
FLINCK, GovAERT
1615-1660
In 1633, the year in which Rembrandt painted his picture The
Lesson of Anatomy, pupils came to him in numbers. Among them
were many youths whose names were subsequently to be notable,
Ferdinand Bol, for instance, and Metsu, Nicolas Maes, De Hoogh,
and Govaert Flinck. Flinck was born on the 25th January, 1615, at
Cleeves. He became painter to Frederick William, Elector of
Brandenburg, and Prince John Maurice of Nassau, but he chiefly
resided at Amsterdam. Flinck was of an impressionable nature,
and his art changed its character many times, according to the
master to whose influence at the moment he happened to submit.
Thus he threw off characteristics in which he had been the disciple
PORTRAIT OF A LADY— AGED 28
Pieier de Putter
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 33
of Rembrandt, and followed the Italians in the love of pure colour.
His subjects were generally of Biblical and classical themes. He
was one of the most employed artists in the country, and the
magistrates of Amsterdam engaged him in considerable works for
the Town-hall. He died in 1660.
23 THE ARTIST AS " AN EASTERN
PRINCE "
Three-quarter length portrait of the artist, in grey tunic, with
embroidered cloak fastened with breast clasp and chain, wearing
a white turban and carrying a bow. (See piate is.)
2,7^ in. X 29^ in.
GELDER, Aert De
1645-1727
De Gelder, who was born in Dordrecht in 1645, was a pupil of
Rembrandt's at the end of the master's life ; previously he had
studied with Hoogstraeten. In style he followed Rembrandt closely.
He commenced to study painting at the age of sixteen. He painted
portraits, but his chief interest was in historical subjects. With its
immense collection of armour and drapery of every description, his
studio at Amsterdam is said to have resembled a broker's-shop.
There is a portrait by this artist of Peter the Great. It was
subsequently engraved. De Gelder died in Dordrecht in 1727.
24 A TAXIDERMIST
An old woman, in brown hood and spectacles, working at her
task at a table littered with draperies and straw ; at her left
dead birds suspended and resting on the table. (See Plate 14.)
Panel. 2 gi in. x 24 in.
GOYEN, Jan van , ' '
1 596-1 666
Van Goyen was born at Leyden in 1 596, and was married in that
town in 161 8 to Annetje Willems van Raelst. Previous to his
34 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
marriage he made a short stay in Haarlem. In 163 1 he went to
the Hague, and was there elected a member of the Painter's Guild.
He died at the Hague in 1666. Always striving to be in dose
contact with nature, with his sketch-book never out of hand, no
artist has responded more sensitively to the moods of the sea than
Van Goyen. His paintings are charged with temperament. We
feel that he too might have spoken, like St. Francis of Assisi, of his
brother the wind, his sister the rain. He was, however, a man of
the world who, incidentally, controlled a vast speculation in ,bulbs
and continually speculated in land and houses. From papers
preserved it also seems that he occupied himself with the planning
and building of the latter. But his activity as a painter never
abated. " He described the Dutch landscape," says Dr. Bode,
" characteristically and decidedly, with a truth and mastery which
no other master before or after him has attained." Of a changeable
and capricious disposition, even as a pupil Van Goyen changed
his master some six or seven times, and, always extravagant, he
died financially involved. Nevertheless throughout his life he
retained respect and social position. His eldest daughter became
the wife of Jan Steen, and her face is immortalized in many of that
master's paintings.
25 THE MOUTH OF A RIVER
The sea at the entrance to a river, with town in the distance ;
on the left, in full sail, a boat filled with men ; several other
sailing-boats in view. On the right a boat, with fishermen at
work, anchored near a sand-bank, and nearer to the spectator
two men watching the operation from a rowing-boat. (See Plate 62.)
■ 26 A BREEZY DA Y
Like the preceding picture, this one represents just one of those
effects of a grey day at sea in which the Dutch marine painters
showed their responsiveness to the mood of nature. In the
right of the picture is a bank with low bushes bent in the wind,
and a coach with two horses apparently proceeding along a
coast road ; in the left two boats, with fishermen, near some
stakes, and beyond them the opposite bank of the river is
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 35
brought into view, with church spire and roofs of houses indi-
cated. The centre of the canvas is occupied with the stretch
of tumbled water, and numerous sailing-boats taking advantage
of the stiff breeze. (See piau 63.)
Signed, and dated 1638
Panel. 24 in. X 15^ in.
HALS, DiRCK
1591-1656
DiRCK Hals was a brother of the great painter Frans Hals. He
was born at Haarlem in 1591, of parents descended from a patrician
family, and was the pupil of Abraham Bloemaert. He devoted
his art to the representation of gaily-attired people drinking,
dancing, or listening to music. His death occurred at Haarlem in
1656.
27 A MUSICAL PARTY
A group of eleven men and women in bright costumes, gathered
together in a room for music ; a chart and pictures on the wall.
{See Plate 15.)
Panel. 21^ in. x 27^ in.
HALS, Frans
1580-1666
Frans Hals was probably born at Antwerp about 1580, or 1581.
His parents belonged to a Haarlem family that had moved to
Antwerp a few years before his birth. There is no record of his
early life, and no early work of his preserved. If we accept the
date of 1580 generally given as that of his birth, it was not until
the painter was more than 35 years of age that he produced an
important picture. He began with the masterpiece, T/ie St.
George's Shooting Guild at Haarlem. There is no other instance
on record of an artist of such standing emerging in middle-life from
o
6 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
obscurity without leaving a trace of the steps by which he
approached supreme achievement. Hals appears to have possessed
his genius entirely without self-consciousness and without impressing
his generation with the miraculous order of his skill. The facts of his
later life come down to us only vaguely outlined. It is known that
he married in 1610, a girl named Anneke Hernanszoon, and in the
following year that a son was born christened Herman. Five years
later his wife died and he married Lysbeth Reyniers. A painting
of her with himself hangs at Amsterdam. They lived together
nearly fifty years, bringing up a large family but incessantly
struggling in narrow circumstances. To mend matters in later
years the painter turned his studio into a school for teaching paint-
ing ; a picture of the interior of the school, painted in 1652, is in the
Haarlem Museum. Hals died in 1666. There is evidence in a
record of a reprimand from the magistrates of Haarlem, dated 1616,
that the painter was guilty of intemperance and violence. But it
may be presumed from the fact that in the succeeding year he was
elected a member of the School of Rhetoric that nothing was
proved to lower him very much in the estimation of his fellow-
citizens. It is perhaps of interest in view of the inter-relationship
which undoubtedly exists between character and art, to avail our-
selves of any light the incident may throw upon the disposition of
one whose complete freedom from convention in art probably
ranks him as the most natural artist who ever painted.
28 PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN
This painting is described as follows in Smith's " Catalogue
Raisonn^," Dr. Hofstede de Groot's Revised Edition, page 121,
No. 417 : — Portrait of a woman. " Half-length, her right hand
rests on her left, which holds a white handkerchief. The ex-
pression of her face is strong and calm, and the cheek-bones are
very prominent. She is in black, with a very simple white cap
drawn down on the forehead, and a broad ruff framing her face.
Dark background; very delicate tones " (See Plate w.)
Signed with monogram and inscribed AE T A 35 1644.
Canvas. 29J «Vz. x 24^ in.
Sale — Baron de Beurnouville — Paris, May 9th, 1881 ; No. 300.
THE DANCING DOG
Jan Sic en
THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO
A DISH OF PLUMS
lac<it, viin F.s
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 37
From the Collection of Maurice Kann, Paris. Exhibited at the
National Loan Exhibition, London, 1909.
Hals read his sitters with the shrewd insight of a man of the
world, recording, but seeming to pass no judgment upon their
character. This aloof, but not uncritical attitude may well
be contrasted with Rembrandt's entire sympathy with his
sitter.
Hals anticipated the modern method of painting in one process,
instead of in two or three stages. No method could be more
spontaneous. It contributed to that great vitality which makes
a portrait by this master seem to rival life itself 1
HE EM, CORNELIS DE !
1631-1695
CORNELIS DE Heem was born at Leyden on the 8th April, 163 1.
Some of the Dutch painters were born into families, whose members
succeeded each other for two or three generations, not only in the
practice of art, but in application to one particular branch of it, such
as still-life painting. The De Heems were an instance of this.
Cornelis was the son and pupil of Jan Davids de Heem, and
grandson of David de Heem, still-life painters. He left Utrecht for
Antwerp about 1660, where he was received into the Guild of
^ St. Luke. It is in the museums of Brussels and the Hague that
works of Cornelis, which are rarer than those of Jan Davids, are to
be found. The De Heems between them were the founders of a
school of painters who devoted themselves almost entirely to the
painting of flowers and fruit. Cornelis de Heem's death occurred
at the Hague about 1695.
29 FRUIT AND LEAVES
, A cluster of white grapes, some purple and green plums,
peaches, nuts and cherries, surrounded with bright green leaves
against a dark background. (See Plate 52.)
Canvas. 24 in. x 21 in.
38 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
HOBBEMA, Meindert
1638-1709
HOBBEMA, like his contemporary Ruisdael, was a poet of the
country-side in his painting. His work has the same deep under-
current of feeling. Upon the art of these men the great naturalism
of modern landscape painting was built up. It is surmised that
Hobbema was a native of Amsterdam. His birth is recorded in
1638. He was married in 1688 to the servant-maid of the Burgo-
master of Amsterdam. Through influence he obtained from the
Burgomaster a small position in the wine-customs, which secured
him sufficient means to live upon. From that time forward the
artist did little painting, but we probably owe the masterpiece in
the National Gallery, " The Avenue of Middelharnis " to the first
years of his married life. His death occurred in Amsterdam in
1709. He received scanty recognition during his life, dying in
poverty. The figures in his pictures were sometimes introduced by
Wouwerman.
30 THE WATER-MILL
In the centre of the panel a mill surrounded by trees, with a
church in the background ; on the left some farm buildings
enclosed in a yard, and men loading a punt ; on the right a
bridge over a winding river. (See Plate 4s.)
Panel. 18J in. x 25 in.
HONDECOETER, Melchior d'
1636-1695
D'HONDECOETER was bom in Utrecht in 1636. He was the son
and grandson of a painter. His father, Gysbert d'Hondecoeter,
came of a noble family of Brabant. Melchior studied painting under
his father and his uncle the famous painter Weenix, and commenced
as a marine painter. From 1659 until 1663 he lived at The Hague.
He is mentioned in the " Confrerie Pictura " ot Hague during those
years ; afterwards he went to Amsterdam. He received the rights
of citizenship of Amsterdam in 1688, and his death occurred in that
city in 1695. His fame rests on his success in depicting birds and
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FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 39
esp>ecially on his representations of peacocks, ducks, and hens, in
fact the birds that are associated with a farm. He aimed at a
decorative effect in his composition, but lack of distinction in his
colour sometimes compromised this.
31 A CAT ATTACKING POULTRY
A cock, of bright plumage, angered by the appearance of a cat,
guards a white hen. Beyond the yard, in which other fowls
are apparent, a hilly landscape is in view. [See Plate is.)
Signed and dated 1652.
26^ in. X 34 in. . '
HOUCKGEEST, Geeraert van Hoegerst
Member of Guild in 1639
HouCKGEEST, who is supposed to have been the son of Joachim
Otto Hoecgeest, the portrait painter, was admitted into the Guild
of St. Luke at Delft in 1639. He devoted the whole of his attention
to painting architecture, and is best known by his pictures of church
interiors. He painted many interior pictures from the Nieuwekerk
at Delft, and two of these are now in the Hague Museum.
32 INTERIOR OF A CHURCH
An interior of a church, with cavaliers and peasants walking,
the pillars to the right are illuminated by slanting rays of
sunlight ; the black escutcheons in the right are effective, as in
the Vermeer picture. [,see Plate 17.)
Panel. 24 in. x 20 in.
JANSENS, CoRNELis
1 593-1664
Cornells Jansens was also called Janssens van Keulen, or
Janson van Keulen, and in England he is now generally spoken of
as Cornelius Jonson or Johnson, which is the spelling he used in
signing his works. Of Flemish descent, he was born in London in
40 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
1593. He regarded himself as English and practised in England
during the greater part of his life. In 1622 he married and had
one son. James I. attached him to his Court, and he painted that
sovereign many times. He painted a portrait of Charles I., now
at the Duke of Devonshire's seat, Chatsworth, also portraits of
Henry, Prince of Wales, and of Sir George Villiers, father of the
Duke of Buckingham. He is largely represented in private collec-
tions in England. The rise of Van Dyck seemed adversely to affect
the vogue of Jansens, but he was painting in England until 1643.
Afterwards he settled at the Hague. He died at Amsterdam
between 1662 and 1664. " During his first thirty years of practice,"
says Mr. Collins Baker,* " he was conspicuously English in temper ;
then with strange adaptability to his surroundings he became
Dutch."
33 PROFESSOR AEMILIUS COMMIS
Three-quarter length portrait of a man, in black gown, with
slashed sleeves and plain white collar, wearing long hair touch-
ing his shoulders. {See Plate 19.)
Signed, Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen, y^«V 1658. Inscribed on
the back : " I an . soon . van . Prof , Aemilius . Commis . Gen . der .
CONVOYEN . en . LiCENT . "
Canvas. 40 in. x 30 in.
KEYSER, William de
1647-1692
William de Keyser was born at Antwerp about the year 1647,
and was brought up as a jeweller. In the craft of jewellery he
attained celebrity, but employed his leisure in practising minia-
ture painting, enamelling and oil painting. After painting some
altar-pieces at Antwerp his business called him to Dunkirk, and
whilst there he painted a picture for the chapel of the English
nuns. This work was so successful that De Keyser was persuaded
to go to England. He sailed without telling his wife and family.
Upon receiving a good reception in England, including an introduc-
tion to King James II., he sent a message to his wife to convert
* " Lely and the Stuart Portrait Painters."
PialijO
THE OYSTER SELLER
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 41
his effects into money, dismiss his workmen and join him. The
Revolution, however, followed within half a year, and by bringing
disaster to his chief patrons adversely affected the fortunes of the
artist. It is said that recourse, in his despair, to the pursuit of the
philosopher's stone completed his ruin. He died, at the age of
forty-five, about 1692, leaving a daughter whom he had taken pains
to instruct, who painted small portraits and copied well.
35 A SHEPHERD
A half length portrait of a peasant in brown coat, with head
wreathed with leaves, holding a shepherd's crook. (See Plate 6.)
Panel. 12 in. y. g in.
KNYFF, WouTER
-1679
WouTER Knyff, the son of Haarlem people, was born at Haarlem.
The date of his birth is unknown. His death occurred after 1679.
No records of his life remain to us.
35 VIEW OF A DUTCH TOWN
View of a town from the riverside. On the right a path
approaching the town by way of a narrow draw-bridge. A
barge containing three figures is moored at the quay. In the
distance is a water-mill. A cloud of smoke from a low chimney
on the left is blown across the sky. {See Plate 58.)
Canvas. 42^ in. x 59I in.
KONINGH, Philips de , •
1619-1689
Philips de Koningh, or De Koning, was born in 1619 at Amster-
dam, and died in that city in 1689. His place is in the front rank
of the landscape painters of Holland, and the picture in this
collection is very characteristic. The artist always returned to the
theme of flat country viewed from a height with greater pleasure,
apparently, than to any other.
D
42 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
36 A VIEW IN HOLLAND
View of a vast stretch of country in which a town encircled by
fields and streams is the central feature. In the foreground a
winding road by a river, the roof and fagade of a mansion
showing above some garden trees ; on the opposite bank of the
river a windmill. The whole valley is subject to alternations
of light under an April sky, and the buildings of the town,
starting into prominence under sudden illumination, are defined
with a delightfully free and expressive touch. {See Plate 54.)
Canvas. 36 we. x 42 1 in.
MAES, Nicolas (or Maas)
1632-1693
Although Nicolas Maes (or Maas) was one of the most eminent
genre painters of the seventeenth century, we have little record of
his life. He was born in Dordrecht in 1632, and became a pupil
of Rembrandt. In 1665 he removed to Antwerp, and lived there
until 1678. In that year it is supposed that he went to Amsterdam,
where he died in 1693.
There was such a marked change in his style towards the end of
his career, that it is thought that there may have been another
painter of the same name. This theory has received support from
the fact that the signatures in his early, and superior period, are
altogether less ornamental in style. It is considered possible that
the Maes who returned to Amsterdam to die in 1693 was not the
pupil of Rembrandt of whom we write, the painter of the early
pictures, but his son.
37 PORTRAIT OF A LADY
A lady resting her head on her left hand, and gathering some
strands of her long dark hair, which falls in ringlets, in her
right. She wears a grey and red satin dress and a pearl neck-
lace. Painted in an oval. {See Plate 20.)
Canvas. 30 in. X 27 in.
PORTRAIT
/. ! 'erspr07ick
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 43
MEER, Barent (or Bernard) van der
1659-
Barent van der Meek, who was born in Haarlem about 1659,
is generally assumed to have been a son of the elder Jan van der
Meer, not to be confused with the great Jan van der Meer, or Ver-
meer of Delft. He entirely confined his art to still-life. He resided
in his native town and there married a member of the Dusart family.
The date of his death is unknown.
38 STILL LIFE
A silver centre-piece filled with delicacies ; a blue and white
Delft dish, containing purple and white grapes, peaches, a
pomegranate and an orange, resting upon a blue-grey table
cloth. An apple, divided, and some nuts scattered upon the
table close to a large glass filled with an effervescing brew.
(See Plate 21.)
Canvas. 2>^ in. X 47 in.
When this painting was discovered some years ago, there was
evidence that its composition had undergone a curious trans-
formation. The cup of the centre-piece had been cut from
its pedestal and put as another dish on the table. The picture
gains greatly in charm of design by restoration to its original
composition, and the centre-piece as it is now seen is of interest
as a specimen of the craftsmanship in silver of the period.
In a note in the " Burlington Magazine," No. cxix., Dr. Bredius
says that of the rare paintings by Barent van der Meer, two
are at the Castle of Wiirzburg, two have lately appeared in sales
at Amsterdam, and another is in his own collection.
METSU, Gabriel
1630-1667
Gabriel Metsu was bom at Leyden in 1630. He was the son
of Jacob Metsu, a painter oi genre, and a native of Bailleul, in French
Flanders, and of his third wife, Jacomina Garnierns, widow of a
D 2
44 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
painter, Willem Fremault. There must thus have been a tradition
of the art of painting even in the nursery of this artist. He was
educated in the art by Gerard Dou. " It is a fact," says de Groot.
"that in 1644, when he was only a boy of fourteen or fifteen, Metsu
was one of the signatories of a petition in which the artists of Leyden
sought permission from the magistrates of the town to establish a
Guild of St. Luke. The Guild was established in 1648, and Metsu
was one of its first members." About 1654 he removed to
Amsterdam. He married in 1658 Isabella Wolff. The following
year he obtained the rights of the citizenship of Amsterdam.
He died in that city in 1667. His painting is similar to that of
Ter Borch's in choice of subject, leaning to the elegant side of
life, with an equivalent delicacy of execution.
39 THE DESSERT
A lady and a gentleman seated at a table, the gentleman offering
the lady a bunch of grapes from a blue and white dish. A
child, holding a peach, plays at the lady's knees. The figures
are seated in a lofty room, with an overmantel supported by
marble pillars and surmounted by a framed painting ; another
painting, above a polished cabinet, hangs on the wall imme-
diately behind them, suffused with light from the left. There
a green curtain is drawn back from the alcove of a window, in
which a bird-cage hangs. The colour of the picture is beautifully
controlled, and the black of the man's suit is well contrasted
with a bright red table-cloth and the lady's blue dress.
(See Plate 59.)
Canvas. 2 1 '^m x 1 9 zn.
In the Collection of M. Schryvere, 1763
In the Lormier Collection
Mentioned by Descamps
Exhibited in the British Gallery, 1832
From the Collection of the Earl of Harrowby ; in the possession
of his family since 1833
Described in Smith's " Catalogue Raisonn6," Vol. 4, No. yj.
" A powerful and admirably painted picture" — Smz^/t
m
,1^$^^
r^"-m
Simon <ic \'Ht\zey
FISHING BOATS
J acobtis van Croos.':
LANDSCAPE
Anthonie Mutcrla
HUNTING PARTY
Pi a,, J J
THE REPOSE IN EGYPT
Sclio.il r/ Kr,u/n„,„:t
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 45
NASON, PlETER
1612-1691
It is not known whether Nason was born at Amsterdam or at The
Hague. It is supposed that he was a pupil of Jan van Ravesteyn,
who was the first painter of the assemblages of the Civic Guard and
the first meetings of the Regents. He was a master of the Guild
of Painters at The Hague in 1638, and one of the forty-seven artists
instrumental in founding the '' Confrerie Pictura " in 1656. Nason
was in England in 1663. In 1666 he was working in the House of
Assembly in Berlin. For the rest he resided mainly in Holland.
He was known to have been at the Hague in 1688, but the date of
his death is uncertain. His widow is referred to at that place in
1691. In his " Lely and the Stuart Portrait Painters," referring to
Nason's short residence in England, Mr. Collins Baker says, " Nason
must have been a formidable rival to Lely, if the quality of his work
is any gauge."
40 PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Girl, with fair hair, wearing a yellow moir6 silk dress, with coral
trimming. She wears a lace collar, and this is delineated in
detail with exquisite skill. It is fastened by a bow which as a
note of black on the picture is of inestimable value to its colour ;
a diamond pendant is attached to the bow. The girl wears a
necklace of pearls, and has pearls in her hair. Signed, and
dated. (See Plate 2Jf.) ■
Panel. 26^ m. x 22, in.
Painted in an oval.
NEER, Aert (or Arnold) van der
1603-1677
Aert van der Neer was bom at Gorkum in 1603. If we can
be guided by the dates of his known works, he had passed the age
of thirty-five before producing his first pictures. There is no evi-
dence as to whose pupil he was. In his early manhood he was
46 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
steward of an estate. The attitude of his contemporaries towards
his painting was not encouraging, and he could only pursue his art
at the cost of the sacrifice of the ordinary comforts and necessaries
of life. At one time he was compelled to open a tavern in Amster-
dam to supplement his income, keeping it with assistance from his
son Jan van der Neer, a less famous artist. Van der Neer's death
occurred in November, 1677. He is chiefly remembered by his
emotional interpretation of landscape in moonlight.
U MOONLIGHT RIVER SCENE
Figures embarking on a barge by moonlight. The surrounding
features of the landscape include trees, a distant bridge, and a
windmill reflected in the moonlit river ; in the foreground a
man holding a white horse for towing the barge. (See Plate 25.)
Signed with monogram.
Canvas. i() in. X 25 in.
42 DAWN
A landscape with a wide river, enveloped in the soft light of
dawn. On the left bank, to which boats are moored, are some
cattle, and figures walking under the trees. The distance is
occupied by the outline of roofs seen through trees, and in the
middle of the river distance is a barge with the sail spread.
{See Plate 65.)
Signed with monogram
Canvas. 39 in. x 47 in.
43 SUNSET
A landscape of flat marshland with water-mill, the whole
suffused with a red glow from the evening sky. Cattle in the
foreground, with herdsman ; and to the right, on rising ground,
a man seated, a boy and a dog. In the left a farm house
Plate ^4
HARE AND PHEASANT
Jan IVeenix
Ptali ts
THE YOUTHFUL CARD PLAYERS
Adriaen van der Werjf
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 47
surrounded by trees, and a pond reflecting red from the sky.
Church towers and distant roofs are indicated faintly on the
horizon. (Su Plate 66.)
Signed with monogram
Canvas 4.1 in. x 57 tn.
NETSCHER, Caspar
1639-1684
Netscher was born at Heidelberg in 1639. His father, an en-
gineer in the service of the republic of Poland, died at Prague
leaving a widow and three children, of whom Caspar was the
youngest, his age at the time being only two years. War compelled
his mother to fly from Germany and make her way to Holland.
Two of her children died on the journey, and she arrived at Arnheim
in Guelderland in a state of utter destitution. Netscher was there
adopted by a prominent physician and educated for medicine, but
his taste for painting led to his becoming the disciple of Gerard
ter Bosch. He set out from that master's studio on an intended visit
to Italy, embarking at Amsterdam for Bordeaux. The encourage-
ment which he received in that town delayed his progress, and in
the meantime conceiving an attachment for the niece of the person
in whose house he lodged, he married, and changed his intention of
proceeding to Italy. He returned to Holland, and though possess-
ing gifts for domestic g-enre and " conversation pieces," the need to
maintain a large family caused him to devote his whole time to por-
traiture. In this he became so eminent in his time that there was
scarcely a considerable family in Holland that had not a work of
his. Charles II. tried to tempt him with a pension to reside per-
manently in England, but the artist, having acquired sufficient means
for his family, declined to consider the prospect of life at a great
court. He died at the Hague in 1684.
M A LADY AT A FOUNTAIN
A girl holding her hand in the spray of a fountain shaped like a
swan. She wears a blue and white dress, and a flower in her
48 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
hair. Beyond the hedge of the garden in which she stands is a
view of distant country. (See Plate 2S.)
On copper, i^ in. x 1 1 in. ..i
OCHTERVELT, Jacob
1635-1700
Jacob Ochtervelt, also sometimes called Uchtervelt or Achter-
velt, was born about 1635, probably at Rotterdam. In 1667 he
was a candidate for the Presidency of the Brotherhood of St. Luke
in that city, and in 1672 was still working there. He painted the
portraits of the Regents of the Lepers Hospital at Amsterdam in
1674. The date of his death is supposed to have been before
1700.
45 THE PET DOG
An interior in which a lady, in a dress of silvery white satin
with a red jacket, teaches a spaniel to beg. Behind her a man
is represented thrumming the strings of a lute. (See piate 26.)
Canvas. 37 in. x 30 in.
OSTADE, Adriaen van
1610-1685
Adriaen van Ostade was a native of Haarlem, the son of a
weaver. He was born in 1610. The name Ostade was adopted
from a small hamlet of that name. He entered the studio of Frans
Hals, and his style was subsequently affected by the practice of
Rembrandt. He was a member of the civic guard of Haarlem. In
1638 he married, but in 1640 his wife died, and.after a lapse of time
he married a woman of aristocratic connexions whose name is not
known.
Ostade died in 1685. He was the master of Cornelis Bega,
represented in this collection, and Jan Steen was influenced by
him. He was prolific, working in oils and also in water-colours
THE COTTAGER'S FAMILY
ROMANTIC LANDSCAPE
Inn Roth
THE WATER MILL
M. Hobl.e,„a
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 49
and he left a number of pencil drawings and etchings. His
favourite themes were drawn from peasant life, and in this genre he
is one of the foremost artists of the Dutch school.
46 THE BLIND FIDDLER.
A group of peasants drinking and smoking round a fiddler
seated outside a cottage, from the doorway of which a woman
looks out. The yard in which the peasants sit is surrounded
by out-houses and trees ; three children are playing ; at the feet
of the peasants a dog is resting. The picture is sympathetic
in colour ; the red of the cottage wall in the right is particularly
pleasant in contrast with the space of lighted wall beside it, and
it gives the key to warm golden tones throughout the panel.
(See Plate 60.)
Panel. \\\ in. x 19 m.
PUTTER, PlETER DE
I 600- I 669
Of De Putter's life there is very little record, though the dates of his
birth and death have been established.
m PORTRAIT OF A LADY-~a.ged 28
A lady in a black embroidered dress, with white collar of lawn
and lace, fastened with a black bow ; her hair is smoothed from
her forehead, and she wears a lawn cap. Painted in an oval.
(See Plate S7,]
Signed with monogram and dated 1666.
Panel. 29 z«. X 23 in.
From the Collection of the Earl of Kinnoull.
so FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
REMBRANDT (School of)
48 THE REPOSE IN EGYPT
Figures, representing the Holy Family resting, make a brightly
coloured group in the right of the picture ; beyond them a stone
archway, and view of the country-side. [See Plate 43.)
Panel. 20 ?«. x 13 in.
RUISDAEL, Jacob van
1 630-1 682
RuiSDAEL, Ruysdael, one of the greatest painters of landscape the
world has ever seen, was born at Haarlem about 1629. He was
the nephew of the artist Salomon van Ruisdael. His father was
a painter and a pupil of Everdingen.
Ruisdael was at first a surgeon, but having formed a great friendship
with Nicholas Berghem, painter of landscapes with architectural
ruins, and influenced perhaps by his uncle, he abandoned the pro-
fession of surgery for that of painting, putting himself under the
sea-painter Cornells Vroom. In 1648 he was entered a member of
the Guild of Haarlem. In 1659 he went to Amsterdam, and there
received the rights of citizenship. Hobbema, the great landscape
painter, was among his pupils at this period.
Ruisdael had considerable skill in introducing miniature figures
into his landscapes, but whenever he felt figures on a larger scale
would be necessary to his composition, he availed himself of the
sei-vices of one or other of the better-known figure-painters of the
day.
At the age of fifty-three, when nearing the end of his life, he
returned to his native city. He died broken-hearted, perceiving
the efforts of his great genius to go unrequited, and himself
allowed to sink to uttermost destitution.
It is thought probable from the character of some of his landscapes
that he lived for some time on the borders of Germany, but the
neighbourhood of Haarlem was the source of much of his inspira-
tion. Some of the more notable of his landscapes were painted in
the vicinity of the Castle of Bentheim. It is even now possible to
Plate 4Q
Ferdinafid Bol
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
THE MORNING GOSSIP
O. ISrekekiikaii
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 51
trace without difficulty the places from which he must have made
the studies for his pictures.
49 THE HILL OF BENTHEIM P^' ^ ^ '^'
A wooded hill, silhouetted against a cloudy sky, with houses
among the trees ; in the foreground a river in rapids ; on the
farther bank a shepherd reclines tending sheep ; in the distance,
some fields are brightened by a fugitive gleam of sunlight.
The right side of the picture is occupied by the definition of a
large tree. (See Plate ss.)
Signed ■
Canvas. 35^^ in. x 54J in. ■ .
Noted by Dr. de Groot for his Revised Edition of Smith's
" Catalogue Raisonn6."
50 MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE ?l ^^
Rain-clouds passing over a wooded river valley and wreathing
the surrounding heights. On the river an open boat with
figures, a barge in sail, figures apparently constructing a tem-
porary pier, and others fishing. In the foreground a cottage is
sheltered in the wood, and on the right of the picture there
are stumps of broken pines ; farther in, overlooking the valley,
a towered chateau, "bosomed high;" fitful sunlight seems to
play over the whole of the green valley-side. (See Plate S9.)
Canvas. 30 in. x 40 in.
This artist's landscape work takes two forms. On the one
hand we have the representation of Dutch meadow-land, on the
other the romantic landscape. But even in the latter he was
always true to topographical character. " There seems no
doubt," says Dr. de Groot, " that Ruisdael must at least have
penetrated into the outlying hill-regions of Germany, the Teuto-
E 2
52 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
burger Wald, or the well-watered valleys, not in his day defaced
by factories and smelting works, of Mark and Berg. The
traveller who carries reproductions of Ruisdael's pictures with
him to these districts will find there many of the painter's
subjects. Only one must try to imagine the country as it was
when it had fewer inhabitants and more woods, and when the
streams were not embanked. . . . The pictures of wood and
meadow are derived from the sandy country of Holland, from
the Gooiland lying to the east of Amsterdam, and also from
the provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overyssel. In those
districts were the forest giants with lofty trunks, the workshops
and watermills, as well as the hills and the marshy pools in
woods. The dunes are, in contrast to these, characterized by
low bushes which have been bent in a particular direction, and
stunted by the strong south-west winds."
SAENREDAM, Pieter
1597-1665
Pieter Saenredam was the son of Johannes Saenredam, an
engraver of eminence. He was born at Assendelft in 1597, but few
particulars of his life are known. He was renowned for his paint-
ings of architecture, and he executed many pieces representing
interiors of churches. He died at Haarlem in 1665.
SI THE TOWN HALL, HAARLEM
A view of the Town Hall of the City of Haarlem. The inci-
dent may represent the solemn entry of Prince Maurice. The
square is thronged with people who gather in groups, a few men
mounted, with dogs in attendance ; an incident of the compo-
sition is the group of children playing in the street. {See Plate ei.)
Canvas. 40 in. x 30 in.
From the Hope Collection
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FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 53
SNYDERS, Frans
1 5 79-1 65 7
Frans Snyders was born in Antwerp in 1579. His master was
P. Brueghel. Snyders commenced his career by devoting his talents
to still-life painting, in which he excelled. But it was by the
delineation of birds that he established his position, which is with
the very greatest masters in this genre. His extraordinary skill in
subjects of the kind commended him to Rubens, who made of him
a close friend, deferring on many occasions to his special knowledge,
and employing him to introduce still-life and animals into his
pictures. With the exception of a short visit to Brussels at the
invitation of the Archduke Albert, for whom he painted many
works, it is believed that Snyders always resided at Antwerp.
Among the pictures painted for the Archduke was one of a stag-
hunt, destined for presentation to Philip HI. of Spain. This work
resulted in the commissions from Philip for hunting-pieces and
combats of wild beasts, and these still hang on the walls of the old
palace of Buen-Retiro. Snyders died at Antwerp in 1657. His
likeness is preserved for us in a portrait of him by Van Dyck.
52 A CONCERT OF BIRDS
Birds of all sizes and of great variety of plumage congregated
on the branch of a tree, upon which rests an open book. A
peacock, a cockatoo, a brown owl and small birds of golden
feather afford rich incident of colour. Birds fly into the picture
from the sides ; at the foot of the canvas the tops of trees in
foliage appear, and birds are shown in the distance flying low.
(See Plate 30.)
Canvas. 53 in. x 69 in.
The companion picture is in the Kaiser's Collection, Berlin.
STEEN, Jan
1626-1679
Born at Leyden about 1626, Jan Steen was about twenty years of
age when he became a student at the university there. In 1648 he
had emerged from studentship, for in that year he was among the
54 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
artists who founded the Leyden Guild of St. Luke. Steen appears
to have received very little direct tuition in painting, though he
perhaps took some of the elements of the art from Jan van Goyen,
who was his father-in-law. Steen went to the Hague in 1649. In
1654 he removed to Delft, where for six years he leased a brewery.
During the years 1661 to 1669 he was a resident in Haarlem, where
his wife Margaretha van Goyen died. From the latter year until
his death, ten years later, he continued to live at Leyden, where
he opened a tavern. In 1673 he married as his second wife Maria
van Egmont, widow of a bookseller. The artist was thriftless and
restless, but anything but idle; he painted an infinite number of
pictures, carried out with genius unrivalled by any other painter
who has entirely devoted his energy to the representation of popular
themes.
53 THE DANCING DOG
A scene in a tavern in which a group of people are watching
with great amusement a poodle's antics while a boy plays a
flute. A red curtain is looped over the doorway through which
trees are seen. The group consists of ten figures, chief
among them a man idly holding a violin, behind him a girl
taking the step of a dance with another man, an aged woman
with lifted glass on the left, and a serving man ; above is an
owl in a niche; underneath it, upon a placard pinned to a
wall, is a proverb (probably "Wat baeter Kaers of Bril, als
den UIl niet zien en wil?"). In the foreground a child is
raising a pewter jug from a wine-cooler. A parrot on a perch,
and above it a birdcage in the left hand corner of the picture.
(See Plate SI.)
Panel. 35 m. x 29 in.
Described by Ch. Blanc. Exhibited in the British Gallery,
1838; formerly in the Poullain Collection, Paris, No. 41, and
engraved while there.
Sales: Gagny, Paris, 1762. Amsterdam, 1765. Nogaret,
Paris, 1780. Langlier, Paris, 1786. Robit, Paris, May 1801'.
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS ■ SS'
H. Muilman, Amsterdam, April 12, 181 3. George Morant,
London, 1832.
From the Collection of Sir Charles Coote, Bart., 1842, and after-
wards in the Collection of Sir Algernon Coote. Reproduced
in Mrs. Jamieson's "Art Treasures of England." Described in
Smith's " Catalogue Raisonn^" No. 17, and in the Supplement
No. 2 1 ; also in Dr. de Groot's Revised Edition of the " Catalogue
Raisonn6," Vol. I., No. loi. Reproduced as a special illustration
in Dr. Breduis' Book on " Jan Steen."
The fiddler in this picture is a portrait of the artist.
In the interpretation of every aspect of the life of the people
Jan Steen's resources as an artist seem inexhaustible. If we
can believe his pictures, no one has ever painted with greater
ease, but they never lack precision or show an absence of con-
centration. Many people may not find his subjects or their
treatment sympathetic ; but of the mirrors which have been
held to life there probably have been few so unflawed as the
one put forward in the art of Steen.
54 THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO.
A preliminary sketch, in oils, for a picture of the above subject,
containing many figures in a landscape. (See Plate s^.)
TENIERS, David (the younger)
1610-1690
David TENIERS (the younger) was born in Antwerp in 1610. He
was the son of David Teniers (the elder), who had married Dympne
Cornelissen de Wilde, the daughter of an officer. There is no
doubt that he took lessons from his father in painting, but there is
no evidence that he studied with any other artist. He enjoyed,
however, the intimate friendship of Rubens. Teniers married the
daughter of a pupil of Rubens, Anne Brueghel. By her he
56 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
had five children. She died in 1656, and six months later he
married the daughter of the secretary to the Council of Brabant,
Isabel Andreas de Freu, by whom he had three children. Teniers
started by being an unsuccessful artist, so far as the sale of his
pictures was concerned, but he was destined to live to be among
the most prosperous of painters, the owner of a country house, and
seeking entrance into the rank of the noblesse. It was recom-
mended that his admission should be granted upon the proofs of
his pedigree if he no longer publicly exercised painting for gain.
Evidently the painter decided that it is possible to pay too high a
price for the gratification of a desire ; he remained a painter. In
1644-5 he was Dean of the Guild of St. Luke, and appointed
painter to the Archduke Leopold William, who loaded him with
gifts, and made him Director of his Picture Gallery at Brussels.
He set himself to make copies of the pictures, more than two
hundred in number, in the collection, and afterwards published
plates from them. Teniers retained this post under the Archduke's
successor, the son of Philip IV. who took the opportunity of
obtaining the many examples of his work which are now in the
Madrid Gallery. It is said that for a short time the artist was sent
to England by a nobleman to buy for him Italian pictures. Teniers
died at Brussels in 1690. His remains were interred in the grounds
of his Chiteau at Perck.
55 THE SHEPHERD
A shepherd boy attending sheep and cattle in a field adjoining
a farm. The near sheep and a white cow form the central
features of the picture. Near the farm two figures appear ;
beyond the trees which enclose the field a hilly country is in
view. (See Plate SUf.)
Canvas. 16 in. x 22 in.
Teniers, in such a painting as this, anticipates that idealisation
of rural scenes which reached its height in the following century
in France, and even in England, where incidents of the country-
side and of peasant life were interpreted entirely in the spirit of
a townsman's day-dream.
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FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 57
56 THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN
A group of people gaily dressed, and attended by musicians,
waited upon at a repast outside an inn. A wine-cooler and
glasses are incidents of the foreground ; also a small dog,
and to the left a cavalier's scarlet coat, with hat and sword,
thrown over a stool. In the distance, in the shelter of a
wall of an old house, the prodigal son is to be discovered ;
beyond a view of country, with trees clustering round a church.
(See Plate SS.)
Panel, ib in. x 36 in.
TOL, Dominique van
1635-1676
Van Toi. was born at Bodegrave between 1631 and 1642. He
was the nephew, scholar, and one of the most successful imitators of
Gerard Dou. He painted for a time at Amsterdam, but most of
his life was passed at Leyden, where he died in 1676.
57 THE OYSTER SELLER
A woman, in a red dress with black hood, looking through an
arched window with a basket of oysters before her, and oyster
shells scattered on the window sill ; at her left hand a brown
earthenware jar, partly covered with a cloth ; behind, an interior
is seen with a dresser and pewter dishes. (See Fiati se.)
Signed with initials.
On copper. 12 in. v. \q\ in.
TOORENVLIET, Jacob (Torenvliet)
1641-1719
ToORENVLIET, JACOB (Torenvliet), who was called Jason, was born,
at Leyden in 1641. He took his lessons in drawing from his father
Abraham Toorenvliet, a glass painter, and became a portrait painter.
5 8 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
He went to Italy in the company of a friend, and at Rome made
Raphael's paintings his particular study. He improved his colour
by submitting himself in Venice to the influence of the work of the
Venetian school. He died at Leyden in 17 19.
58 A FAMILY GROUP
A gentleman and his family on a garden terrace overlooking a
romantic prospect ; the lady wears a silvery white satin dress
with blue scarf, the folds of dress and scarf being disposed by
the artist with much regard for beauty ; a curtain behind the
lady is arranged with equal care, and is in one of those rare
colours which, lost apparently to the dyer's art, escape defini-
tion in modern terms. The girl to the left holds gathered
flowers ; her dress is of golden-yellow silk ; a younger child with
one hand caresses a spaniel on the lady's lap, and with the other
affords a perch for a brightly plumaged paroquet. {.$■&■ Plate 37.)
Signed and dated.
On copper, ly in. x 2 1 4 tn.
VELDE, WiLLEM VAN DE
1633-1707
WiLLEM VAN DE Velde, the younger, was born at Amsterdam in
1633. His paintings, like those of his father, were greatly prized at
the English Court. He was employed by Charles H. to represent
the English naval engagements with the Dutch, and for this purpose
a small vessel was put at his service. Whenever possible he
introduced his own vessel in a naval battle scene, as evidence of his
presence at the combat. It pleased him in his larger pictures to
put over each vessel its name, also names of the admirals com-
manding, and under his own vessel " V. Velde's Gallijodt." He has,
perhaps, been rivalled by Turner alone in the almost incredible
number of pencil drawings he produced in addition to his pictures —
drawings executed with miraculous celerity. Besides studying under
w.
THE DESSERT
Cntricl I\Ulsu
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 59
his father, who also assisted him with many important pieces, he was
trained by De Vlieger, that master of marine painting. Van de
Velde the elder had enjoyed the favour of Charles II. — from whom
he received a pension, continued under James II. — and this patron-
age was extended to the son, to whom in 1674 Charles II.
granted a considerable salary as painter of sea-fights. "■Mr. William
Van de Velde, senior, late painter of sea-fights to their Majesties
King Charles II. and King James II., died in 1693 " — so ran the
inscription on the tombstone of Van de Velde the elder in St.
James's Church, Piccadilly, and it was here also that the younger
Van de Velde, the painter of the picture below, who inherited the
Royal appointment, was buried in 1707. On account of the
esteem in which his skill was held, and the innumerable com-
missions which his official position guaranteed, the art of this
painter was almost entirely dedicated to themes of battle and
merchant venture representing the rivalry of the navies of England
and Holland.
59 THE SALUTE
A battleship, firing a gun ; behind it another large vessel,
and smaller cruisers in attendance. A fully-manned rowing-
boat approaches the large ship from the right. On the left, in
the foreground, are two small boats with figures. The sky
is partly overcast, and the loose sails of the ships catch the
light vividly from another direction. The horizon, with
mysterious suggestion of distant ships, is interpreted with much
charm of colour, intensified by the bright flags of the near vessels.
{See Plate 6Jf.) . ,
Signed, and dated 1701
Canvas. 15 in. x 22^ in. ,
VERMEER, Johannes (of Delft) (?)
1632-1657
Johannes, or Jan Vermeer (or Van der Meer) of Delft, was born
at Delft, and baptized there October 31, 1632. His father's name
6o FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
was Teynier Vermeer, but little is known of the family. The
painter married in 1653. Eight months later he was entered
master-painter in the Guild of St. Luke. He died in 1657.
60 THE INTERIOR OF THE OUDE KERK
AT DELFT.
The interior of a church, with light reflected on the white
pillars ; figures in the aisles on the right, in the left a vault
being opened. The panes of the stained glass windows and
the quarterings of the black escutcheons introduce incident of
colour into the ethereal white scheme of the picture as a whole
which are peculiarly effective. {Sei Plate ss.)
Signed J. Vermeer, 165 1
Canvas. $1 in. X 41 m.
VERSPRONCK, Johannes Cornelisz
1579-1662
Johannes Verspronck (or Spronck), the second son of E. C.
Verspronck, was born at Haarlem in 1 579, and entered the Guild
in 1632. He was a pupil of his father and Frans Hals, and
painted portraits and shooting pieces. He died at Haarlem, June
1662.
61 PORTRAIT
Portrait of a man in a black suit, with wide ruff. He holds
a grey glove in his right hand. Painted in an oval. {See p/ate S9.)
Canvas. 26 in. x 34 in.
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 6i
VLIEGER, Simon de
I 600- I 660
Simon de Vlieger was born at Rotterdam about 1600. It is
not known who was his master. He became famous through his
sea-pieces. In 1634 he entered the Guild at Delft, and in 1643
became a citizen of Amsterdam, and in that city died about 1660.
He was the Master of Willem van de Velde, the younger, the
greatest of the Dutch Marine painters, to whom Charles II. granted
a large salary for painting sea-fights, and who was buried in St.
James's Church, Piccadilly.
62 FISHING BOATS
Fishing boats upon a choppy brown sea, the shadow of a rain-
cloud on the water in the foreground, where men in a boat are
fixing a net to stakes ; on the right, a saiHng-boat putting out
from the pier, flying the flag of Holland. (Su Plate 40.)
Panel. 16 in. x 24 in.
WATERLO, Anthonie
1609-1676
Anthonie Waterlo (or Waterloo) who was born in 1609 at Lille,
is perhaps better known as an etcher than as a painter. He lived
in a chateau near Utrecht for many years, where Weenix used to
pay him periodical visits for the purpose of inserting figures into his
pictures. Waterlo was married at Zevenbergen in 1640, and died
at Leeuwarden in 1676.
63 HUNTING PARTY
A party of huntsmen with hounds pursuing a stag through a
glade. (See Plate 4Z.)
Panel. 26^ in. X l^\ in.
62 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
WEENIX, Jan
1640-1719
Jan Weenix (or Weeninx) was born at Amsterdam in 1640. He
was the son of Jan Baptist Weenix, landscape painter, and the
grandson of an architect of celebrity in Amsterdam. He acquired
a great reputation for painting still-life, especially for depicting
trophies of game. Weenix was attached to the court of the
Elector Palatine, for whom he painted his finest works. He died
at Amsterdam in 17 19.
m HARE AND PHEASANT
A group of shot game, including a hare, a pheasant, and a
number of small birds attached to a stick ; a gun is resting
with other dead birds on a table To the right is a view of
country with a sportsman approaching carrying a long gun and
attended by a dog. (Ste Plate 44.)
Canvas. 40 in. x 30 in.
WERFF, Adriaen van der
1659-1722 * *~
Adriaen van der Werff was born at Kralinger-Ambacht, near
Rotterdam, in 1659. He showed at an early age a disposition for
art and was placed under Cornelis Picolet, a portrait painter, with
whom he remained two years. He worked next under Eglon van
der Neer, leaving him at the age of seventeen to set himself up at
Rotterdam. There he became acquainted with a gentleman who
possessed a collection of Italian drawings, and it was the study of
these that influenced him in the direction of that coldly correct
method of design for which in his own time he was admired. In
1696 the Elector Palatine, passing through Rotterdam, was particu-
larly struck with the works of Van der Werff. He commissioned
him to paint a "Judgment of Solomon," and his own portrait for the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, inviting him to bring the two pictures
when finished to Dusseldorf The following year the painter was
engaged to devote six months in the year to the service of the
.P o
!. .: X
A [^jRliRZV DAY
Jnn 7'an Goyeu
THE SALUTE
W. van de Velde
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 63
Elector, for which he received a pension. In 1703 he was ennobled.
He died at Rotterdam in 1722. Van der Werff was the author of
plans for the Rotterdam Exchange.
65 THE YOUTHFUL CARD PLAYERS
Three boys playing cards in a vaulted passage, into which the
sunlight pours from the right, making a pool of light on
the floor ; other figures in the distance near the entrance of
the passage. {See Plate 45.)
Signed
Panel, i \\ in. y. 12 in.
From the Wynn-Ellis Collection, 1876.
From the Collection of Sir James Knowles, 1908.
This painting, the very best example of its school, is to be
distinguished from earlier Dutch genre in a fresh ideal of finish
which it introduces. Here we have the beginning of a pro-
fessed realism which yet all the while seems ashamed of
reality ; which, without opposing the " ideal " to nature,
takes that conventional view of nature to which we have
been made accustomed — all too thoroughly — in modern
academic art.
WITTE, Emanuel de
I 607-1 692
Emanuel de Witte was born in 1607 at Alkmaar. He studied
painting under Evert van Aelst, a still-life painter, the uncle of
Willem van Aelst, represented in this collection. De Witte did not
follow the branch of painting in which the van Aelsts had been
eminent, but, after unsuccessfully essaying to be a portrait painter,
found his mMer in painting the interior views of churches. It was
his habit to introduce into these scenes numerous figures, which are
drawn with great expression. He is the foremost of the many
64 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
Dutch artists who took this particular kind of " interior " painting
for their own province, and who have been without rivals in it. De
Witte died at Amsterdam in 1692.
66 INTERIOR OF THE NIEUWE KERK,
DELFT
A church in which figures are in conversation, dogs in some
instances in attendance on the figures. A woman is seated in
the foreground instructing two children. In the chancel people
are gathered for a service. The soft illumination of the white
walls of the aisles, the perspective, and the suffused light of
stained glass are exquisitely treated. A green curtain in heavy
folds drawn right across the picture is one of the most noticeable
features of its composition. This was a favourite device in
Dutch pictures, intended to create the illusion of a curtain
suspended from the frame between the spectator and the view
of a very precious picture. The same emblem is apparent in
the still life piece by Van Beyeren, Plate 4. As a matter of
fact, it was not uncommon at the time for a curtain of rich
material to be suspended from a rod fixed at the top of the
frame. {Sa Plate 55.)
Signed, and dated 1658.
Canvas. 34 in. x 38^ in.
WOUWERMAN, Philips
1620-1668
WOUVERMAN was born at Haarlem in 1620. He was the son of a
painter of Alkmaar who did not rise to distinction, and he had two
brothers who were also painters, though of inferior rank. At the
age of nineteen he eloped with a lady to Hamburg and married her
there. He is said to have received great financial assistance at
this time from a friend, a priest. In 1640 he returned to Haarlem
and was received into the Guild of St. Luke He died at the ao-e
Q
i*-'
FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS 65
of 48, in 1668. His place is a very distinctive one in the Dutch
school. He was the master of the subject-picture, stage-managing
pictures crowded with incident with a unique sense of pictorial
possibilities. He so often introduced a white horse into the centre
of his compositions that this feature is identified with his pictures
in the public mind. About seven hundred pictures by this great
and prolific painter are preserved. He had grown up under the
influence of the Thirty Years' War, and subjects from its events form
an important part of his work. The hunting party was also a
favourite theme.
67 THE CART IN A RUT (or "La Charette
EMBOURBfiE ")
Baggage waggons ascending a sharp hill, followed by a cart just
entering the picture. In the foreground a man is pulling the
head of a white horse, harnessed to the cart, and an attendant
rider is urging the animal with a whip. By the roadside a
woman is resting with a baby, and beside her a man stands with
a heavy pack, leaning on his stick. Trees partly dismantled of
their leaves crest the hill. {See piate 67.)
Panel. \']\in. x 14^ m.
From the Collection of the Comtesse de Verrue, 1737
From the Mansard Collection, Paris
From the Collection of M. Blondel de Gagny, 1776
From the Collection of M. Destouches, 1 794
From the Collection of M. Tolozan, 1801
From the Collection of the Marquis de Montcalm, 1849
From the Collection of Robert Field, Esq., 1856
Mentioned in " Le Tr6sor de la Curiositd," i. 337-8 and ii. 472
by Ch. Blanc
Described in Smith's "Catalogue Raisonnd," Vol. i. No. 119
66 FLEMISH AND DUTCH PAINTINGS
WYCK, Jan
1640-1702
Jan Wyck, in England called John Wyke, was the son of a
painter who was a Dean of the Guild at Haarlem, and who came
to England at the time of the Restoration. Wyck was born in 1640.
He followed his father to England, where he remained until his
death in 1702.
68 THE SICK WOMAN
A peasant-woman in a wooden bed in a roughly furnished cabin,
a sister of mercy seated at the foot of the bed, and a man on the
farther side holding a measure of medicine up to the light. In
the forepart of the picture a table drawn up to the bed, bearing
a covered jug, bottles, a napkin and spoon. (See Plate 53.)
Panel. 15 in. x 12^ in.
';^?^!RWlWPWR;?^rry>- ■-
THE CART IN A RUT
P. IP'ouwernian
LONDON :
PRINTED EY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W.,
AND DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.
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